ChallengeOrganizations that rely on manual vendor invoice management and bill payment processes are aware that their staff is overworked and adding additional staff does not solve the inherent problems. A manual process is inefficient, error prone and labor intensive. The days of staying “status-quo” and not being receptive to “change” are gone. Companies have to have leading edge processes to improve efficiency and lower costs.

ProblemManaging vendor invoices is a necessary part of doing business; however, processing repetitive telecom and utility invoices is a non-value but necessary function. Problems in the “as-is” process are prevalent – misappropriated cost allocation, duplication, late payment fees, lost/misplaced documents, payment errors, missing invoices, payments not applied correctly, - are symptoms of the poor performances in the “as-is” process.

In addition, the “as-is” process is batch driven that moves from one production step in the material flow to another production step waiting for the next production step to occur.

The invoices move along in a tedious manner of; receiving, data capture, billing review, document billing errors, coding, cost allocation, approval, payment, and filing. The following is a summary of the “as-is” process with associated costly functions.

Receipt: Manually receiving invoices from different vendors in different formats create high costs

Data Capture: Errors occur with manual data entry that end up in the accounting system

Billing Review: Billing errors are not detected and associated involves are over paid

Approval: Extend payment time due to manual routing for managers sign-off

Payment: Inability to maximize financial benefits such as early discounts or avoid late fees

Reporting: Not able to provide managers with data in a useful format to make informed decisions

Filing: Document storage is expensive and high costs associated to document retrieval

SolutionWith the Invoice Management and Bill Payment process using the business intelligent software “Tarisoft”, the scanned vendor invoice is entered into Tarisoft that maintains invoice data for verification and cost allocation. Invoices are then routed for management sign-off and continue for payment to meet payment deadlines. The invoice moves in a single piece flow as shown:

Outputs that create better management and control1) Approval Authority Retained by Client: Client retains the authority and ability to approve all invoices for payment.2) Maintain Inventory: Current inventories of vendor services for Moves, Adds, Changes and Deletes are entered into Tarisoft.3) Custom Management Reports: Vendor data captured in Tarisoft and presented to managers in a useful format so they can make informed decisions.4) Software Process Improvement: The reality of process improvement is that all the changes cannot be immediate and future changes will occur. TA’s software development staff is available to constantly upgrade the client’s needs to maximize efficiency.